About the Panelists

Chef Jimaine Miller, The Def Chef (Soulful Dishes, Feed the People – Central District)
Owner of Soulful Dishes restaurant on 18th and Yesler, the Def Chef (Jimaine Miller) has been a longtime advocate for food and social justice. In response to the pandemic, Miller opened up his restaurant and kitchen to serve free meals and support Feed the People, a community kitchen manned by Chef Tarik Abdullah (see below) which utilizes donated skills and time, and donated food items from local restaurants and purveyors to feed anybody who needs a meal. Soulful Dishes and Feed the People is located at 1800 E Yesler Way. Learn more here.

Chef Melissa Miranda (Musang – Beacon Hill)
Chef Melissa founded Musang, a Filipinx-inspired restaurant, in 2016 to be “a community-driven and not chef-driven” place for gathering and connecting, not just eating. Since the lockdown, chef Melissa has transformed Musang into a not for profit community kitchen which serves free hot meals daily, and raises relief funds for the hospitality industry community, and launched the Seattle Community Kitchen Collective to help those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seattle Met Magazine recently named Musang “Restaurant of the Year 2020”. Learn more here.

Chef Tarik Abdullah (Feed the People)
Tarik Abdullah is a businessman, craftsman and chef who runs his own charitable initiative, Feed the People, and is deeply involved in the Seattle Community Kitchen Collective. Chef Tarik’s cuisine is inspired by the tastes and flavors of his childhood, growing up in a Muslim family and broader community where ethnic foods were the norm. His culinary creations honor traditions from North Africa and the Mediterranean. You might recognize Chef Tarik Abdullah from ABC’s “The Taste,” a competitive cooking show on which he spent six episodes winning Anthony Bourdain’s favor earlier this year. He has earned a reputation as an artist and innovator, and his pop-up brunches in South Seattle have a cult-like following. Abdullah, a Seattle native, has been juxtaposing cooking and entertainment for as long as he can remember. Learn more here.

Chef Ariel Bangs (Healthy Creations, Plant Based Food Share)
Chef Ariel Bangs is a local chef, urban gardener, culinary anthropologist, educator, food justice/food access and healing-through-food advocate who owns and runs Healthy Creations, a private cooking and baking company, and Plant Based Food Share, a Community Food Program that provides Plant Based healthy food boxes to Seattle area families who are currently facing food insecurity. Chef Ariel serves residents all over Seattle, with a focus on African American, African, Hispanic, and indigenous communities. Learn more here.